OTTAWA (Canada) –  From December 10-12, join Cape Breton’s adored fiddler Natalie MacMaster and the NAC Orchestra in celebrating the merriest time of year, for an evening of heartwarming, rip-roaring music, guaranteed to get your feet stomping and hands clapping just in time for the holiday season.

Natalie MacMaster – a fiddle genius, Order of Canada recipient, two-time JUNO Award winner, Canadian music icon -- has appeared many times at the NAC and always brings audiences to their feet. In recent years she has expanded her musical repertoire, mixing her Cape Breton roots with music from Scotland and Ireland, as well as American bluegrass. But it’s her mastery with the bow and her intricate technique in making the fiddle sing while championing the Cape Breton tradition that astonishes her admirers time and time again.

As a recent Boston Herald review says “To call Natalie MacMaster the most dynamic performer in Celtic music today is high praise, but it still doesn't get at just how remarkable a concert artist this Cape Breton Island fiddler has become.”

For three exceptional Fidelity Investments Pops performances, Conductor Lucas Waldin will lead MacMaster and the NAC Orchestra through an invigorating Christmas collection of toe-tapping jigs, reels and strathspeys – such as the Leahy Christmas Fiddle Medley with holiday classics like Jingle Bell Rock, Silent Night and O’ Little Town of Bethlehem. The performance will also feature Mac Morin on piano and Eric Breton on drums.

Join us for Fidelity Investments Pops featuring Natalie MacMaster with the NAC Orchestra December 10th to the 12th. Tickets start at $25 and are available at the NAC Box Office or online at NAC-CNA.ca.

The Friends of the NAC Orchestra is holding a spectacular silent auction on December 10 and 12 in the main foyer of the NAC in conjunction with this NAC Orchestra concert. Bid on outstanding and unique donated items from across Canada and from around the world. Proceeds benefit the Friends of the NAC Orchestra’s commitment to music education programs for young people. Help us build a fantastic future for music in Canada!

NATALIE MACMASTER BIOGRAPHY

To fans of fiddle music, Natalie MacMaster needs no introduction. Over a recording career now spanning 25 years, this Order of Canada recipient has released 11 albums that have notched sales of over 200,000 copies, won two JUNO and eleven East Coast Music Awards, and been nominated for a GRAMMY®.

Natalie is in great demand as a charismatic performer, and has collaborated with artists as diverse as Yo-Yo Ma on the GRAMMY®-winning album Songs of Joy & Peace), Alison Krauss, Jesse Cook, Bela Fleck and Johnny Reid. She made her debut with the NAC Orchestra in 2001, and was the featured artist of a Pops show in 2012, with the O’Hare Irish Dancers.

Her most recent appearance with the NAC Orchestra was last April, in a concert featuring Donnell Leahy & Family. Natalie is thrilled to share her Cape Breton roots with the NAC’s audiences, and also her musical insight into the remarkable place, people and culture that has shaped her life, music and family. In her first collaboration with her talented husband Donnell Leahy, the duo released One (Linus Entertainment), produced by the legendary Bob Ezrin. One debuted at #1 on the U.S. Soundscan World Music Albums chart.

LUCAS WALDIN BIOGRAPHY

Lucas Waldin is a dynamic and versatile conductor who has delighted audiences across North America by combining a passion for performance with a flair for audience engagement.

Now in his seventh season with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO), Lucas is currently the ESO Artist-in- Residence and Community Ambassador. With over 100 appearances to date with the ESO, Lucas has collaborated with some of North America’s finest musicians including Jens Lindemann, Angela Cheng and Sergei Babayan. An experienced conductor of pops and crossover, he has worked with a range of artists such as Ben Folds, Chantal Kreviazuk and the Barenaked Ladies, and has conducted numerous multimedia presentations including Disney in Concert and Blue Planet Live.

Strongly dedicated to Canadian composers, Lucas has performed six world premieres and collaborated closely with composers such as John Estacio, Allan Gilliland and Malcolm Forsyth. In 2012, he was awarded the Jean-Marie Beaudet Award in Orchestra Conducting by the Canada Council for the Arts.

In 2013, Lucas Waldin made his debut with the NAC Orchestra, leading a Pops concert featuring the Barenaked Ladies. He returned last April for a Pops concert featuring Donnell Leahy & Family.

ABOUT THE NAC ORCHESTRA

In September 2015 Alexander Shelley began his tenure as Music Director with the National Arts Centre’s Orchestra. Shelley has an unwavering reputation as one of Europe’s leading young conductors, notably as Chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and most recently as the Principal Associate Conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Formed in 1969 at the opening of Canada's National Arts Centre, the NAC Orchestra gives over 100 performances a year with renowned artists including Itzhak Perlman, Renée Fleming, James Ehnes, Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma. It is noted for the passion and clarity of its performances and recordings, its ground-breaking teaching and outreach programs, and nurturing of Canadian creativity.

Since its inception the Orchestra has commissioned 80 works, mostly from Canadian composers. In 2001 it inaugurated the National Arts Centre Awards for Canadian Composers and the recipients thus far have been Denys Bouliane, John Estacio, Peter Paul Koprowski, Gary Kulesha, Alexina Louie and Ana Sokolovic.

Previous NAC Orchestra Music Directors include Pinchas Zukerman, Mario Bernardi and Trevor Pinnock. The 2015-16 season features Principal Guest Conductor John Storgårds , Alain Trudel as Principal Youth and Family Conductor and Principal Pops Conductor Jack Everly completing the strong artistic team.

In addition to a full series of subscription concerts at the National Arts Centre each season, tours are undertaken to regions throughout Canada and around the world, most recently to China (2013) and the UK (2014). The latter commemorated the start of the First World War and explored themes of remembrance and healing through music in over 50 education and performance events. Following the footsteps of Canadian troops 100 years ago, it showcased the brilliant work of Canadian composers and the NAC Orchestra's musicians, both as performers and as educators, and received standing ovations in packed halls throughout the UK.

In 1999, Pinchas Zukerman founded the NAC Young Artists Program, part of the wider NAC Summer Music Institute, which provides elite training to talented young musicians. Students all over the world are also taught via videoconferencing in the NAC's cutting-edge Hexagon Studio. The Orchestra also created and continues to pioneer education work locally and in indigenous communities in northern Canada.

The NAC Orchestra has made over 40 commercial recordings, including Angela Hewitt’s 2014 Juno Award-winning album of Mozart Piano Concertos conducted by Hannu Lintu. Many more concerts are freely available through NACmusicbox.ca on the NAC's performing arts education website ArtsAlive.ca. These include many of the 100 new Canadian works commissioned by the NAC Orchestra in its 45 year history.

 

TO BOOK AN INTERVIEW, PLEASE CONTACT:

Andrea Ruttan

Communications Officer, NAC Orchestra
National Arts Centre
(613) 947-7000, ext. 335
Andrea.Ruttan@nac-cna.ca